Mini Boss
by Beholder of the Shadows
Summary: A short take on the fight between Link and Dark Link in the Water Temple. More brutal than what the game gives us.


Title: Mini Boss

Written By: Beholder of the Shadows

Based on: Legend of Zelda the Ocarina of Time, owned by Nintendo and created by Shigeru Miyamoto  
Written: August 27th/28th 2008  
Edit: June 28 2011

Draft Version with minor editing.

Disclaimer: The Legend of Zelda, its characters, story and games are owned by Nintendo and created by Shigeru Miyamoto. This short story was made strictly for entertainment purposes only and not for any gain on behalf of the author.

Enjoy.

A/N: So I finally decided to glance this over and give it an edit. I know there are still mistakes and the structures of the sentences are all over the place. Feel free to point out any mistakes I've missed. Hopefully this version is a bit easier to read. Thanks!

Link let out an annoyed grunt as he walked to yet another door in the watery maze with Navi tutting at him as he dripped water all over the stone base at his feet. Unlocking the door with the silver key and exiting the hall he found himself in a room, or what he assumed was a room, entering into a seemingly endless mist with a stone floor entrenched in shallow water. A lone leafless tree stood straight ahead, and beyond that, another goddess forsaken door. The door behind them closed and bars locked, effectively blocking them from going back that way, meaning the only way out was the door across the misty expanse. Link wanted to smack himself with frustration. Navi flew ahead, turning and examining the door which they just entered through which seemed to be its own independent structure with no wall separating this room from the one they just entered, nothing being on the other side of the doorway when Link glanced around it into yet more glowing mist. Navi voiced both of their thoughts in a blunt dead tone.

"What the hell is wrong with this room?"

Walking across the open space, Link paused to examine the tree, and found nothing interesting or remotely helpful about it its presence in the room. Passing it, Link made his way to the opposite door, annoyance mounting in his frame as he realized that bars also blocked any exit from this door as well. Navi sighed, sensing his agitation when she spotted his shoulders drop in annoyance.

"It wouldn't be the water temple if it was that easy Link."

Just as he was about to pull out a bomb to see if he could blow through the damn door, a soft whisper made him stand stock still, waiting for the noise again. Hearing nothing, he turned slowly to face the open expanse of the room, staring at the tree in the center and swearing to himself that the thing looked down right creepy and a whole lot darker than when he passed it moments before. Navi zoomed through the air around him curiously, whispering in case he was trying to listen for something and to not alert any potential attacker.

"Link? What is it?"

Holding a hand up for silence, he quietly walked through the shallow water to the tree, slowly circling it, a shiver running down his spine as he glanced back and forth at both doors on either end. As his glance settled back on the tree, his heart jumped into his throat, wicked red eyes staring directly into his own before the tree seemed to morph and the sharp edge of a sword was singing a path straight for him. Ripping the Master Sword from its sheath, metal met metal with a resounding crash of steel and sparks. Dark steel ground against a mirror reflection of his own lighter blade as a hollow laugh bubbled from the dark apparition standing before him, Link's stomach dropping as his mind registered what exactly he was seeing. Navi sputtered in alarm.

"Watch it, Link! He's a copy of you!"

Dancing around another swipe from his dark twin, Link cursed under his breath, lunging with his own offensive strike and the next moment finding himself sprawled on the shallowly immersed stone floor scrambling to dodge another incoming attack of sharp blade and laughter.

"Link, he knows your-!"

A dark cackle broke from his opponent again as the blunt edge of the apparitions' Master Sword caught Navi in the side sending her sailing through the air and into the door they had entered the room from. A dull thump reached Link's ears as she landed limply on the elevated stone before the door. Anger bubbled and sent adrenaline through him as he lunged at his darker counterpart, a deep mocking voice toying with him as he missed and ended up sprawled in the shallow water a second time.

"Really! Is THIS the Hero of Time?" Another swipe came at Link, leaving him a fraction of a second to dodge and counter, locking their blades. His shadow cackled in his face, the pale lips stretched into a deformed smile that only added to the nausea deep in the hero's stomach.

"Well, master wants this little hero puu-niiished!" The sing-song voice was drowned out by the sound of swords clashing and more cackling. Link grunted as he blocked and threw off another swing at himself, dancing back to give himself some distance from his opponent. Panting, he glared, his twin twirling his sword in a bored lazy arch with unsettling ease.

"I'm not having any fun Hero. How are you going to fix that, eh?"

The two circling each other, Link shifted into a ready stance, muscles tense and his heart beating wildly with the rush of adrenalin in his system. Red eyes locked onto his own, visibly darkening to a deep shade of scarlet, sending another shiver shooting up Link's spine as the smile directed at him seemed to widen. Warning bells went off in the back of his mind and Link growled, amusing his enemy.

"The _Hero_ is growling like a puppy; let's teach this tough little _puppy_ a lesson!"

Attack after attack wailed on Link, the swipes so sudden Link slid across the floor from the force, his arm protesting to the blunt force of blocking each swipe. Each time he saw an opening, he was forced to block yet another sudden offence, twisting his sword through the air so fast against his enemy's that both swords were nearly a blur. This went on, the splash of water as feet scrambled across the floor and the sound of metal crashing against metal echoed off the walls drowned out Link's deep panting as his assailant forced him to move and fight harder than any previous enemy ever had. Sliding on the stone from another hit, Link's foot met with the tree root and the opposing forces drove him to the ground, his darker half tumbling over him, and the Master Sword skidding under the shallow surface of the water, only a few feet away but beyond his reach as he slammed into the stone floor. Whipping around to face his enemy, link rolled from a swipe and with the momentum, kicked out his shadow's legs before pivoting for a tackle. Shuffling on the wet ground, Link grabbed Dark Link by his the front of his tunic and landed a wet punch on the grinning face, ripping the sword out of the others hand and readying to slash the darker hit.

A hit knocked the sword away, both shuffled on the ground, water flying as Link punched his dark copy again in the face. He raised his fist, not even waiting for the other to turn his head back to him when a sharp blow caught him in the abdomen from the others knee, knocking him off his attacker and into the shallow water on the stone floor. His dark counterpart rolled and promptly punched him again in the abdomen, making Link gasp in pain and gag. Snarling and letting out a cackle, Dark Link lunged. Straddling Link and grabbing him by the front of his tunic, he slammed Link's head against the stone ground before the hero could get back his bearings, and proceeded to wrap his fingers around the hero's neck and squeeze with an abnormal amount of strength. The hero kicked and flailed, getting one hand off his throat and holding it off before it was ripped from his own and another punch to his stomach forced the air from his lungs, making him choke. The fingers were around his neck again, tighter and squeezing so hard he couldn't force the much needed air back into his lungs.

Link clawed at the wrists of his darker shadow, the need for air burning in his chest and his eyes watering as he vainly tried to breath. Pale lips smiled and laughed at his efforts, glowing red eyes so close they seemed to consume him and drink in his soul. Pure panic made Link's pulse hammer against the fingers curled in a death grip around his neck.

"You look so ridiculous, Hero of Time! Like a dying fish..."

Mocking humour passed through both eyes and lips boring down into him, the grip on his throat going even tighter, making Link's chest spasm. His mouth gaping and his eyes wide as his vision began to blur, only the face of his torturer bright for his weakening mind to register, Link's kicking began to die down and his attempts to break the grip on his neck weakening as his lips continued to pale and turn an unnatural shade of blue. The feeling of the water soaking his tunic felt icy as his body continued to beg for air, hair slicked back to the side of his cheeks and his hat lying under the surface of the water weighed down by the weight of his head. The sounds of splashing going quiet, Shadow Link laughed as Link's legs went dully limp, weakly twitching in a last attempt to free their master from his confines. Link's thoughts were drowned out by the thundering in his ears, his mind a haze of fear and desperate panic as he knew that he had little time left before his heart would stop in his own chest. Weakly, he groped with tingling fingers, reaching to his captor's belt, a voice in Link's mind begging for something, anything, to get these hands off his neck.

Dark Link laughed, throwing his head back a letting out his mirth at the hero's attempts, the sound echoing dully round the room as he leaned in so he could make sure the last thing the hero saw was his grinning face. Pulling his lips back into a wicked smile, he spoke giddily, as Link's hand settled on an item tucked into the back of the darker counterpart's belt, weak fingers wrapping around it as dark lips whispered mere inches from his own.

"I'll make sure to tell that Princess just how you died, how weak and pitiful you looked as I strangled the life out of you. I'll make sure she feels the same weakness hero, I'll squeeze that pretty little neck till the life flickers from her e-AGH!"

A howl of pain bounced off the walls. Angry ripples formed in the water from the sound, red tinting the water below them as the moments stretched on. Link's hand was curled tightly around a sharp metal blade, half impaled into the soft side of his shadow's abdomen, the already black tunic saturated. Angry red eyes stared at the blade, and then at Link as steel was pulled from skin, then roughly run back through.

The fingers on Link's throat jerked and loosened, driving Link to desperately keep ramming the slim dagger into his darker's side, wet grunts of pain echoing from the walls with every rough movement until finally the fingers disappeared from his throat entirely as his other slumped off him, and with a weak sputter air made its way harshly into his lungs. Gasping and coughing weakly, his eyes swimming, Link lay there listening to ragged breathing of his twin. The blade still weakly clutched in his hand, the dark blood on it turning the water red as it disappeared under the surface of the water as his arm went limp. Turning his head with much effort and disorientation, Link observed his darker half in a sort of half daze. The water around him a turning a dark yet vibrant red, seething red eyes boring into his own as the life slowly bleed from them. Spitting blood and gasping wetly, his dark copy still stretched a smile across his lips, wheezing as his eyes began to gloss over.

"Remember hero... I'm still...a copy of you...I'm still...you... and I'll always... be..."

Link laid staring into dead crimson eyes for a time he could not fathom nor guess, an eternity seeming to exist even as Navi woke on the other side of the chamber and the illusion of the endless mists and tree faded to the uniform stone walls of another room in the water temple. He faintly heard her call for him, unable to respond to her panic as she flew to him and attempted to gain a response from him, the ragged uneven breathing coming from his body the only indication he was alive at all.

A/N: Just a short writing featuring the fight between Link and Dark Link in the Water Temple of Ocarina of Time with my own modifications. I know it's been done many times, but I wanted to put in my two cents and upload my own version of what may. This is only a draft with some quick revisions so I apologize to everyone who found all those mistakes I missed, I did spell check and revise, lol.

I always thought the fight was short and considering the opponent, not emphasized enough (though the room in which it took place was one of my personal favourites in the game). I tried to establish a character for Dark Link, whom I would think would be just like the fight in the game; quick, aggressive and bluntly brutal. The timing of the story follows something similar, being quick in certain areas where the fight would genuinely be a huge rush to Link, and at other points prolonged and detailed. While this might have been a too big exaggeration of the fight, I believe it builds nicely on the relationship that could exist between the Hero of Time and his Dark and Evil Counterpart, and just how quick and brutal the fight could actually be between the me know what you all think, I'm really curious as to how other people view the relationship between Link and Dark Link.

As always, I welcome any kind of review, critical ones especially. I'm looking to improve my writing and this was just a quick draft that I decided to try out and get some feedback on. Thanks guys!

Beholder.


End file.
